Clothes hanger support



Aug. 9, 1955 F. A. FITZKEE ET AL CLOTHES HANGER SUPPORT Original Filed 001:. 21 1950 fivvewim' United States Patent CLOTHES HANGER SUPPORT Franklin Allen Fitzkee and Charles Albert Leash, York, Pa.

Substituted for abandoned application Serial. No. 191,512, October 21, 1950. This application April 24, 1952, Serial No. 284,176

2 Claims. (Cl. 211-113) This invention relates to a clothes hanger support and more particularly to a support of the type used to hold and support a plurality of conventional clothes or coat hangers.

When it is desired to dry or air garments of various kinds such as dresses and coats either outdoors or indoors While supported by a clothes hanger hooked on a clothes line, the clothes hanger with the garment on it will frequently either slide along the line or on many occasions will be blown along or off the line if outdoors and a wind is blowing, thus causing the garment to be soiled. If a number of garments on clothes hangers are hung on a clothes line or any other similar line, a sag is usually caused in the line and this causes the hangers to slide together so as to cause the garments to be bunched or packed tightly against each other and inadequate and ineffective airing or drying of the garments as well as unnecessary wrinkling results. This is particularly true when the hangers are hung on a smooth line such as wire or wire cable, as well as rope or plastic covered wire.

Efforts to hold hangers on lines so as to prevent sliding or blowing off the line have been made previously such as kinking or knotting the line adjacent each hanger,

twisting the line around the hook of the hanger, or using clothes pins in an effort to hold the hook of the hanger in a specific position on the line. These efforts have not been satisfactory because they were injurious to the line, time consuming, and generally ineifective to accomplish the desired purpose.

It is the principle object of the present invention to provide a support for one or a plurality of conventional clothes hangers, said support holding said hangers in desirably spaced relationship under all conditions of wind and inclement Weather, and arranged to prevent the hangers becoming disconnected from the support under the same circumstances.

it is a further object ofthe invention to provide a clothes hanger support which is easily attachable to a line such as a clothes line and is provided with automatically operable attaching means which prevent accidental detachment of the hanger from the line, the attaching means also being effective to prevent any appreciable amount of movement of the hanger longitudinally of the line.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a support for clothes hangers which is supportable from a clothes line or similar line by means permitting manipulation of the support so as to facilitate clothes hangers being either attached to or detached from such support without causing adjacent clothes hangers to be detached from the support during the process.

Details of the foregoing objects and of the invention, as well as other objects thereof, are set forth in the following specification and illustrated in the drawing forming a part thereof.

In the drawing: Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a clothes hanger support embodying the principles of the present invention and shown supported on a clothes line.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged end view of the support shown in Fig. 1, one part of the support being illustrated in full lines and, in dotted lines, in the position occupied by said part when a clothes hanger is being attached to or detached from said support.

This application is a substitute for our prior application Serial No. 191,5l2, filed October 21, 1950, and unintentionally abandoned by us.

Referring to the drawing, the support assembly 18 embodying the principles of the present invention comprises an elongated, flat, preferably metal bar 12 which is of the nature of strap iron and quite rigid. It may be either of steel, suitably coated or plated to render it rust resistant, or it may be formed of suitable corrosion resisting material such as aluminum, thereby requir ing no coating. Adjacent one edge of the bar 12, near either end, are holes 14, said edge being uppermost when the bar is operatively positioned in use. The bar is also provided with a row of evenly spaced apertures 16 of uniform diameter and preferably only slightly larger in diameter than that of the conventional wire hook of a clothes hanger, whether the garment engaging portion of the hanger is of wire, wood, or other material. Most wire hooks of such hangers are within a relatively close range of diameters, thus rendering the support quite universally adaptable to receive the hooks of most hangers.

Several connected chain links 18 comprising a short chain are secured to the holes 14 at each end of the bar 12, as shown, and an S-type hook 20 is attached to the upper end of the top link 18 of each chain section. The links 18 and hooks 20 are either suitably rust-proofed or formed from non-corroding material. The lower loops 21 of the hooks 20 are of smaller size than the open loop comprising the hook end 22. The open loop which forms the hook end 22 is covered with a short section of rubber or similar hose or tubing 24 which has a wall thickness preferably at least equal to the diameter of the hook 20. The rubber is resilient and moderately compressible and quite frictional. Tubing such as used for vacuum hoses for windshield Wipers on. automobiles is suitable.

The tubing 24 is forced onto the hook 20 from the free end thereof so as to occupy a substantially horseshoeshaped configuration, as shown in Fig. 2, and the normal space 26 between the ends thereof, which are substantially opposite each other is less than the diameter of an average conventional wire, wire cable, or plastic coated clothes line 28. Thus, the hooks are attached to the line 28 by squeezing the line 28 through space 26 and compressing the walls of the end portions of the tubing 24. Inasmuch as the ends of the tubing 24 are substantially opposite each other, the pressure of forcing the line 28 between the ends of the tubing tends to force both ends toward the bight of the hook more or less evenly and thereby prevents any substantial displacement of the tubing relative to the hook ends 22. Further, the end of the tubing initially positioned on hook end 22 abuts the lower loops of the hook 20 to position the tubing relative to the hook 20. When the line 28 is positioned within the bight of the covered hook 20, said end portions of the tubing immediately restore themselves to their original thickness. This arrangement comprises an automatically operable safety means for holding the hooks 20 and thesupport bar 12 on the line 28 and prevents the bar from becoming accidentally detached from the line 28, even during high winds and storms.

The chain sections formed by links 18 and hooks 20 comprise flexible supporting means for the bar 12, permitting swinging gyrations of the bar 12 in many direc tions within reasonable limits, affording limited, somewhat universal movement of the bar. Such movement comprises an advantageous feature of the invention 1n that the one chain and hook tends to counteract and check movement of the other chain and hook, thus resulting in the prevention of any appreciable movement of the entire support assembly longitudinally along the line 28. The friction afforded by the rubber or similar covers 24 also largely contributes to preventing any movement longitudinally of the line 28.

The hooks of clothes hangers are disposed within the apertures 16 in any convenient manner but the arrangement of the invention is such as greatly to facilitate such insertion. The bottom loop of the lower link 18 of each chain is preferably substantially circular and is disposed substantially transversely to the bar 12, thus easily permitting the bar 12 to be rotated axially through an arc of about 90 to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 2. The holes 16 will then extend substantially vertically and be positioned easily to receive the free end 32 of the hook 34 of a coat hanger 30 as illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 2. Movement of bar 12 to the full line position in Fig. 2 automatically will secure the hooks 34 of hangers 30 to bar 12. Ready removal of the hooks 34 from the apertures 16 in bar 12 is accomplished by moving the bar 12 to the dotted line position thereof and lifting the hanger from the bar.

The spacing of the apertures 16 in bar 12 is such that garments, fabric, or other items such as curtains, drapes, etc., which may readily be supported by hangers 30, will be held in effectively spaced positions relative to each other, whereby airing or drying thereof is efficient and thorough, with a minimum of wrinkling of the same being possible. Further, if garments and the like are buttoned or otherwise fastened to the hangers 30 when placed thereon, there is no possibility of the garments or the like being blown from the hangers 30 and support '10, even in high winds and storms. The weight of garments in hanging from the bar 12 will hold the bar relatively vertically under even windy conditions and the weight of said garments on the hangers 30 will prevent any substantial sliding movement of the hooks 34 relative to the apertures 16.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the present invention provides a clothes hanger support assembly which is rugged and durable, capable of long life, simple, inexpensive to manufacture, foolproof in use to attach to a clothes line or other similar line so as not to become accidentally separated therefrom, clothes hangers are held thereon in spaced relationship to render drying and airing of garments efiicient, and the chain and hook supports for the bar 12 are such as to prevent appreciable movement of the support assembly longitudinally of the line any appreciable distance, even though the line may be arranged at a substantial angle to the horizontal or is quite sagged. Clothes hangers 30 may easily be attached thereto and removed therefrom while the hangers are held in normal, garment supporting position. The support assembly 10 is also readily adapted to be hung in closets or other storage spaces, from hooks, nails, or clothes poles, so as to afford a convenient means to support garments from clothes hangers in spaced positions, thus preventing any appreciable wrinkling of the garments, etc.

The rubber tubing 24 may be easily and readily replaced, if deteriorated after long periods of use, and the support will then be restored practically to new condition.

While the invention has been shown and illustrated in its several preferred embodiments, and has included certain details, it should be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the precise details herein illustrated and described since the same may be carried out in other ways falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

We claim:

1. A clothes hanger support comprising in combination, an elongated stiff bar provided with a plurality of apertures spaced longitudinally therealong and arranged to receive the hook ends of clothes hangers, an open hook freely and flexibly connected to said bar at each end thereof and the bight portion of said hook being of larger diameter than the width of the opening therein, and'a predetermined length of compressible resilient material of substantial thickness covering said hooks to afford friction and the ends of said material being substantially opposite each other at the opening of said hook to render the hook opening constricted and of a width less than the diameter of the line it is intended to receive but the covered bight portion thereof being of greater diameter than said line, whereby both ends of said covering may be squeezed substantially simultaneously and be compressed at the opening of the hook when the latter is being attached to a line, said covering also serving to prevent accidental removal of the hooks from a line transversely as well as frictionally engage said line to prevent appreciable movement of the hooks longitudinally of said line except when it is desired to move the hooks manually therealong.

2. A clothes hanger support comprising in combination, an elongated stiff bar provided with a plurality of apertures spaced longitudinally therealong and arranged to receive the hook end of clothes hangers, a plurality of open hooks each having a closed loop thereon, connected link members flexibly connecting the closed loop of each hook to said bar adjacent each end thereof, and the links engaging said bar having substantially circular loops disposed substantially transversely to said bar, the openings in said hooks receiving a line so as to be supported thereby, and a tube of predetermined length of compressible resilient and frictional material of substantial thickness covering said hooks and rendering the hook opening constricted and less than the diameter of the line it is intended to receive but the covered bight portions of said hooks being of larger diameter than said line, whereby said covering is arranged to be squeezed and compressed at the opening of the book when the latter is being attached to a line in a direction transverse to said line, the ends of said covering being substantially opposite each other and one end thereof abutting the closedv loop of each hook to position the tube thereon and said covering serving to prevent accidental removal of the hooks from a line as Well as frictionally engage said line to prevent appreciable movement of the hooks longitudinally of said line except when it is desired to move said hooks manually therealong.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 285,159 Reynolds Sept. 18, 1883 843,904 Mahla Feb. 12, 1907 1,146,981 Weinberg July 20, 1915 1,522,285 Chism Jan. 6, 1925 1,815,673 Kelly July 21, 1931 1,858,653 Willcox May 17, 1932 1,886,574 Normandy Nov. 8, 1932 2,146,190 Luke Feb. 7, 1939 2,245,126 Day June 10, 1941 

